1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present general inventive concept relate to an image forming apparatus, a control method and an interface apparatus thereof, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus that performs a printing operation for print data obtained from data packets received via a network, and a control method and an interface apparatus thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a network printer receives data packets containing print data from a host apparatus such as a computer system and forms an image on a printing medium such as a paper by performing a print operation for the print data obtained from the received data packets.
Typically, an image forming apparatus that receives the data packets of print data via a network includes a central processing unit (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), a media access control (MAC) controller, an image processing unit, a printing unit, etc. The MAC controller receives the data packets containing the print data from a host apparatus, processes the received print data packets, stores the processed print data packets in the RAM, and interrupts the CPU. When the CPU is interrupted, the CPU performs a data processing corresponding to a protocol of the data packets, such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Next, the image processing unit performs an image processing for the print data obtained from the data packets to generate a print image and the printing unit performs a printing operation based on the generated print image.
However, since the MAC controller has to use system resources such as the CPU or a system bus in order to process the received data packets, it is necessary to minimize unnecessary data packets processing in order to improve system performance. The MAC controller may have a function of filtering unicast data packets having an incorrect destination MAC address or preventing certain multicast data packets or broadcast data packets from being received.
However, even when the MAC controller receives unicast data packets having a correct destination MAC address, the MAC controller may have difficulty in properly filtering received data packets to obtain required data packets, since the received unicast data packets are analyzed to be useless or the received multicast data packets or broadcast data packets are needed depending on their upper protocol types.
In this connection, although Korean Patent Publication Number 10-2005-0077229 discloses a MAC controller having an additional function of filtering IP/ARP data packets, the MAC controller of this application has limited applicability to only a particular protocol type of Internet Protocol/Address Resolution Protocol (IP/ARP). In addition, although Korean Patent Publication Number 10-2005-0056109 discloses a technique of detecting data packet congestion and limiting data packet receipt in a particular situation so as to perform a particular operation without any problem, this technique has also a problem in that data packets of an unnecessary protocol type can not be completely filtered.